Game



Jan. 4, 1949. J scH b 2,458,306

GAME Filed Jan. 4, 1945 JOSEPH JCHNE/DE ATTORNEYS Patented Jan. 4, 1949 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE GAME Joseph Schneider, New York, N. Y.

Application January 4, 1945, Serial No. 571,259

3'Claims. 1

My invention has to do with a novel game of skill in the playing of which a light, sure touch and a nice sense of balance are called for-a game, in short, to challenge an amateur equilibrist. The apparatus employed consists, broadly speaking, of a normally horizontal, freely rockable platform, preferably the equitorial plane of a hemisphere supported on a table top or other flat surface, and a number of counters or blocks with which the player tries to build a wall or other structure on the teetering foundation of the platform while preserving a precarious equilibrium. As' the wall rises, so does the threat to its stability, until sooner or later a block placed ever so slightly off balance, or the fortuitous touch of I a nervous finger grazing ever so lightly, topples the whole laborious structure and spills the blocks in confusion over the table top. The player who manages to build the highest wall before catastrophe overwhelms him is the winner, though various methods of scoring may be employed, as I shall point out presently.

In order to make the game more difficult, and hence more attractive, I prefer to erect, at the center of the platform, a tall and slender stem crowned with a shallow cup which loosely holds a ball like an acorn in its chalice. Even a seemingly slight oscillation of the platform can cause this stem to gyrate like the mast of a cookieshell anchored in a choppy sea, confounding the builder and flinging the ball On the table with the piled blocks.

In the accompanying drawing I have illustrated one form of apparatus with which my game may be played, although other forms may be devised. In this drawing:

Figure 1 is a front view of the rockable platform with its stem, cup and ball,

Figure 2 is a perspective view of one of the blocks,

Figure 3 is a plan View of the apparatus of Figure 1 showing several courses of blocks laid on it, and

Figure 4 is a front view of the lower end of the apparatus of Figure 1, showing four courses laid--by a perfectionist.

In these drawings, l indicates the supporting hemispheric base of the apparatus resting on a table top or other fiat surface 2. As the hemisphere is properly balanced, its equitorial plane is normally horizontal and constitutes a platform 3 on which a wall or other structure built of blocks 4 may be erected, as shown in Figures 3 and 4. Rising vertically from the center of the platform 3 is a stem 5 carrying at its upper end a shallow 2 cup 6 in which I have shown an egg-shaped ball I. This ball is loosely held in the cup and will fall out of it when the base I is rocked beyond a certain point. v

The center of gravity of a homogeneous hemisphere lies on the radius normal to the equatorial plane about three-tenths the distance .between that plane and the spherical surface. Thus as a hemisphere is rocked and its point of support shifted, say to the right, its center of gravity shifts to the left, the resulting couple tending to restore the body to its original position when the rocking force abates. In other words a hemisphere is normally in a condition of stable equilibrium. (The same is true also of a hemicylinder.) If now the center of gravity be moved toward the equatorial plane, the restorative couple is lessened and stability with it; and once the center of gravity rises above that plane, a condition of unstable equilibrium ensues. Examing the drawing, we see that the stem 5, rising from the equatorial plane of the hemisphere I, raises the center of gravity of the whole and thus reduces the couple. The added weights of the cup 6 and ball I aggravate this condition, and when to these deequilibrating factors we add a rising wall of blocks, disasteralways possible in an unstable world-becomes inevitable; the only unknown is the height of the wall when disaster shall strike. This wall, laid by an expert, may conceivably raise the center of gravity to the catastrophic level, but experience has shown that collapse usu ally anticipates this, being induced by a mere tilting of the platform under maldistri-bution of the load. However, I need not catalogue nor attempt to analyze all of the lurking forces militating' against success in this architectural enterprise; they are legion-as a trial will quickly demonstrate.

So much for science; now for sport.

The game may be played as follows: Each player in his turn attempts to build a wall of blocks on the platform 3 and around the stem 5. The rules may be simple. No set structural pattern need be demanded, the only requirements being, let us say, that no more nor fewer than a given number of blocksfour probablyshall constitute a course, and that when a wall crashes its builder is throughat least for that roundand his score is the number of blocks he has built into the structure before its collapse. On the other hand, the scoring may be varied to add interest and inculcate certain virtues. For example: forty-one may be chosen as a full complement of blocks (afiording a decent margin 2,458,306 vi i" of safety), ten of them colored red, ten yellow, ten green, ten blue, and one white. The basic values of the differently colored blocks may be as follows: red 5, yellow 10, green 15, blue 20 and white 50. In scoring, each player totals the value of the blocks he has successfully built into his wall; but were this all, each player would naturally begin to build with his-White block and his blues. To encourage venture, the value of each block may be doubled for each successive course. Thus, the white block cautiously chosen by the poltroon for his corner stone nets him a paltry 50; reserved with some courage for the second course, 100; and successfully built into his third course by the brave man, 200. And so on; whereby hardihood is nurtured and the bird in the bush exalted above the one in the hand.

In order to make the game more attractive to children, I may paint a face on the egg-shaped ball 1 and call it I-Iumpty-Dumpty. Beguiled by this simple strategem, the child, laying his blocks on the platform 3, fancieshe is building a wall for Humpty-Dumpty: a wall, like the fabulous egg itself, destined to have agreat fall, despite the builders earnest efforts to forestall it. So conceived and used, the rocking hemisphere with its stem and egg and blocks is more properly a toy than a game, but in either case it is intended to alford amusement and relaxation. It may, however, serve a more serious-even a therapeuticpurpose: that of teaching coordination of hand and eye and the reacquiring of old tactile skills.

The apparatus with which my game is played: the hemisphere, the stem, the cup, the ball and the blocks may all be made of wood. But this is not important and other materials may be used,

4 provided only the center of gravity be not so' low that stability spoil the fun nor so high that the device cannot stand on its own bottom or topple with the first block. Some judgment mu be exercised in these matters.

I claim:

1. Game apparatus comprising a hemisphere, the equatorial plane of which forms a normally horizontal platform, a stem rising vertically from the center thereof, a cup on the stem, a structure of separate blocks built on the platform and a ball loosely held in the cup.

2. Game apparatus comprising a hemisphere supported on a flat surface, the equatorial plane of the hemisphereforming a normally horizontal platform, a stem rising vertically from the center thereof, a cup on the stem, a structure of separate blocks built on the platform, and a ball loosely held in the cup.

3. Game apparatus comprising a hemisphere, the equatorial plane of which forms a normally horizontal platform, astem rising vertically from the center thereof, acup on the stem, and a ball loosely held in the cup, the center of gravity of the whole lying below the equatorialplane, and a structure of separate blocks built on the platform whereby the center of gravity is raised and stability impaired.

JOSEPH SCHNEIDER.

REFERENCES CITED UNITED STATES PATENTS Name Date Flint Nov. 4, 1902 Number 

